Trump says he put economic pressure on China's president to help with North Korea

Mulvaney listens as U.S. President Donald Trump meets with members of the Republican Study Committee at the White House in Washington
Thomson Reuters
President Donald Trump discussed his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and how he pressured him to help denuclearizing North Korea by leveraging the US's massive trade with China at a press conference on Wednesday.

"President Xi wants to do the right thing ... We had a very good chemistry together," Trump said of the pair's meeting when asked if he had a deal in place for China to help with North Korea for trade concessions.

"I think he wants to help us with North Korea," said Trump, who acknowledged that trade was part of the discussion around North Korea.

Trump said he told his Chinese counterpart that "the way you're gonna make a good trade deal is to help us with North Korea, otherwise we're just going to go it alone, but going it alone means going it with lots of other nations."

Xi seemed to reaffirm his intention to help curb North Korea's nuclear threats to US forces abroad and allies in the region with a phone call to Trump on Tuesday night in which he signalled a new willingness to act.

Traditionally, China has been North Korea's biggest backer, and Trump has accused Beijing of not doing enough to help.

"I was very impressed with President Xi," said Trump. "I think he means well and he wants to help, we'll see if he does."